It's not cheating, Mangina didn't need to cry like a little bytch. He could've stopped BB from taping without making a media mess out of it - granted, I'm not sure if that was his intention, we can't really know. But it's what happened, and it didn't need to happen.

It's not cheating, Mangina didn't need to cry like a little bytch. He could've stopped BB from taping without making a media mess out of it - granted, I'm not sure if that was his intention, we can't really know. But it's what happened, and it didn't need to happen.

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It is cheating, part of a long standing tradition of cheating in the NFL. Don't kid yourself.

It is cheating, part of a long standing tradition of cheating in the NFL. Don't kid yourself.

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If you are admitting that this kind of "cheating" - sign stealing - has been a long standing tradition in the NFL, then why should the Patriots suddenly get penalized almost a million dollars and a 1st round draft pick for doing it? It would be like suddenly implementing some blue law that no one has heard of in 200 years and randomly arresting one guy. You effectively just disproved your own point. Congrats.

At the very least, Goodell should have acted to control the leaks from his Office that fed the articles by Mortensen et al.

As for Mangini, I think he got exactly what he wanted and he had no desire or intention of doing it quietly. Now, as is often the case, he might be regretting it. "Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it."

If you are admitting that this kind of "cheating" - sign stealing - has been a long standing tradition in the NFL, then why should the Patriots suddenly get penalized almost a million dollars and a 1st round draft pick for doing it? It would be like suddenly implementing some blue law that no one has heard of in 200 years and randomly arresting one guy. You effectively just disproved your own point. Congrats.

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Umm.....ok. They should get penalized because they were stupid and got caught. I just effectively proved my own point. Congrats to me.

Umm.....ok. They should get penalized because they were stupid and got caught. I just effectively proved my own point. Congrats to me.

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OK, you're an idiot. There is a difference between breaking a rule and cheating. You can prove they broke a rule, but you're point was that they cheated, yet in trying to say they cheated, you said cheating was the norm, thus effectively making whatever punishment doled out to them unjust.

Seriously, how can people not understand the difference between BREAKING A RULE and CHEATING.

At the very least, Goodell should have acted to control the leaks from his Office that fed the articles by Mortensen et al.

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Exactly. Remember the Milloy tampering charges against the Redskins...

Did they break the rules? Absolutely.

Are the rules in place to ensure competitive integrity? You betcha.

Did the violation cause an unbalanced competitive landscape for another team? Probably, but nothing that threatened league integrity (at that point)

Does everyone violate that particular rule to an extent? Yep.

Sound familiar? Thought so.

In that case, the commissioner investigated. LEAKED NOTHING. Rendered a judgement IN PRIVATE (think the Skins FO got a nasty-gram about this?). Situation resolved. No muss, no fuss. Patriots not overly happy, but they got over it.

It could have went like this...

Commissioner investigated. LEAKED GENERAL DAMNING DETAILS. Team is tried and convicted in the media without specifics or the team's side being heard. Cries go out for heads to roll. Commissioner deliberates a penalty and LEAKS IT TO THE MEDIA (insinuating guilt). More cries from the masses. Commissioner hammers the team (though the masses are in such a state of indignation at this point nothing short of castration will be enough). Incident lingers long past its appropriate lifespan.

Sound familiar? Thought so. Besides the media, who is happy about this turn of events? Show of hands? Anyone?

Belichick thumbed his nose at the commissioner and got spanked. Play this right, and we would be discussing an "undisclosed penalty for a procedural violation". Play it in the media and we now have a league under seige.

If using video equipment is such a threat to league integrity, ya think the commissioner would have had the NFL security folks at the game...oh, I dunno...LOOK OUT FOR UNAUTHORIZED CAMERAS! The Pats guy got 8+ minutes of taping in while NFL security looked on. How long would he have lasted with a machine gun over his shoulder? Just burns my biscuit.

Goodell is doing fine as a prosecuting attorney, but last time I looked that is a small part of his job. He better hope that nothing comes out of the closet from other teams or he will have an unworkable situation (can't punish them now, can't let it go unpunished). It just didn't need to go down like this.

OK, you're an idiot. There is a difference between breaking a rule and cheating. You can prove they broke a rule, but you're point was that they cheated, yet in trying to say they cheated, you said cheating was the norm, thus effectively making whatever punishment doled out to them unjust.

Seriously, how can people not understand the difference between BREAKING A RULE and CHEATING.

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I'm trying to think of a word that describes "willfully and deliberately violating a rule during a game"...Odd, it seems to have been excluded from every dictionary inside the NE area.

And just how was it supposed to be handled quietly? It's not possible in this day and age to keep a story like this quiet.

If you can't stand the heat, don't cheat.

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There is a way to keep things quiet, MLB does it all the time. I know baseball is a dirty word on this board, but for once, baseball is in the right. I am watching Sox pre-game and they were talking about the Yankee pitcher who threw at the head of Kevin Youkilis, an infraction MUCH more serious than spy-gate. Anyway after that incident, MLB announced the pitcher was suspended for 2 games and fined an UNDISCLOSED amount. I know the commish is trying to make a statement here, but it could have been handled more quietly, especially in light of how crazy the media coverage has been....

I don't know how you fine arguably the most prominent head coach in the league half a million, and take away a first round draft pick from one of the SB favorites, quietly.

Looking at it from a view of what's best for the NFL, I agree that they should have tried to plug the leaks. But it's such a huge story, I don't know how you keep it under wraps all week.

I am watching Sox pre-game and they were talking about the Yankee pitcher who threw at the head of Kevin Youkilis, an infraction MUCH more serious than spy-gate. Anyway after that incident, MLB announced the pitcher was suspended for 2 games and fined an UNDISCLOSED amount. I know the commish is trying to make a statement here, but it could have been handled more quietly, especially in light of how crazy the media coverage has been....

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In the baseball world though, throwing at someone's head is not unusual, in the way this spying stuff is. It happens, and pitchers are always punished for throwing at a player intentionally. The two examples are not really comparable.

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Became a big story because Manjudas called his friend Cimini, and it hit the news big time..

I don't know how you fine arguably the most prominent head coach in the league half a million, and take away a first round draft pick from one of the SB favorites, quietly.

Looking at it from a view of what's best for the NFL, I agree that they should have tried to plug the leaks. But it's such a huge story, I don't know how you keep it under wraps all week.

In the baseball world though, throwing at someone's head is not unusual, in the way this spying stuff is. It happens, and pitchers are always punished for throwing at a player intentionally. The two examples are not really comparable.

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Manjudas is the best name for Mangini I've heard all week! Funny.

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I am not comparing the two issues, just saying that MLB keeps its punishments under wraps, no one leaks this information before the commish announces it. And when they say someone was fine an undisclosed amount, no one discloses this information.

yeah that's exactly what pats fans said when the merriman report was leaked to mort

what a load of crap, you guys love this **** when it's not your team, suck it up , your franchise is tarnished as is their image.

grow some balls and deal with it

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What is the big discovery here, that fans are biased when it comes to their own team? That a sports fan doesn't look at every single issue objectively? What a shock!

And there are approximately eight million threads dealing with this whole issue, and plenty of posters have discussed what it means for the franchise and it's image.

I had nothing against other teams' fans coming in here and criticizing the Pats because I know the Pats have deserved it, but this is getting ridiculous. Post something intelligent or don't post at all.